Pubdate: Wed, 30 Apr 2014 Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH) Copyright: 2014 The Columbus Dispatch Contact: http://www.dispatch.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93 Author: Joe Vardon FITZGERALD SAYS HEROIN-TREATMENT PLAN WOULD SHORTCHANGE MENTAL-HEALTH FUNDING Ed FitzGerald, Democratic candidate for governor, says a House Republican plan to spend $45 million on heroin-addiction treatment would just siphon that money away from other mental-health services. The Kasich administration says it's not that simple. FitzGerald, who is also the elected Cuyahoga County executive, said in a news release yesterday that his county alone would lose $7.5 million for mental-health services if the Ohio Senate approves - and Gov. John Kasich signs - the House-passed legislation including the drug-treatment funding. In another statement, FitzGerald questioned whether Kasich's presence at a heroin-awareness summit means he supports the House proposal to shift the money away from mental-health services. Kasich's chief government health-care adviser said FitzGerald's claims are misleading and lack context. Greg Moody, head of the Ohio Office of Health Transformation, said the money for county mental-health boards in the current budget isn't being "cut" but rather redirected. That's because Kasich's expansion of Ohio's Medicaid program would "pump $550 million into the behavioral-health system" statewide, he said. Kasich proposed a different redistribution of money from what the House proposed. Moody said, " We are totally on board with the sincerity" of the House plan, but "we prefer our approach." Moody's staff also provided The Dispatch with numbers reported by counties from the current fiscal year. Those figures show that of the $7.5 million Cuyahoga County's mental-health board received, $4.7 million went to staff salaries instead of patient services - easily the highest among Ohio's 88 counties and the only county getting at least $1 million from the state to spend more than a few percentage points of the money on salaries. "All of the counties were given a choice to put services first, and there's only one county that didn't," Moody said. William Denihan, head of Cuyahoga County's mental-health board, said the state's not giving the whole story. Cuyahoga County is not allowed to use levy dollars to pay administration costs. "The other part that's disingenuous is for (the state) to say there's this windfall of cash coming from Medicaid expansion," Denihan said. "It's not happening that way for us yet." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt